The use of optical fibers for connecting circuit boards and the like to other circuit boards or to other devices such as a backplane is known in the art. Typically, one end of a flexible optical cable is secured to the circuit board and another end having a connector is secured to the external device such as a backplane connector. These type of flexible connectors are referred to in the industry as “pigtail connectors”. While these type of flexible cable connectors provide an optical connection between the circuit board and the backplane they also require additional space in the compartment since the “pigtail connectors” have excess length, which forms a U-shaped loop in the flexible cable, that must be accommodated for by having extra space around the circuit board or the backplane connector.
While rigid optical connectors could be included on both the circuit board and the backplane connector such connectors would require extremely close tolerance to properly position the circuit board with respect to the backplane connector thus making such rigid connections unsuitable for most applications.
The present invention provides an optical connector that can be secured to a circuit board or the like with the optical connector including a displaceable connector block that allows one to connect the circuit board to the backplane connector without the need for precise three dimensional alignment between the circuit board and the backplane connector. As a result the present invention simplifies the manufacturing process while reducing the module area and the cost in providing optical connections between portions of a system such as a circuit board and a backplane. A further benefit is the optical connector of the present invention provides improved maintainability of the connection as well as improved reliability.